Shhh

Ballou, Hannah [Artist] (2018) Shhh.

Abstract

Shhh is a performance praxis investigating the aesthetic consequences of the marginalisation of parents in the performing arts. What does becoming a parent do to one’s embodied arts praxis? How could an audience experience this viscerally through deploying the spectacle of liveness of care in the performance frame? Lisa Baraitser theorises the maternal subject as one that ‘emerges from the experience of interruption itself.’ (Baraitser, 2009, pg. 67) Shhh articulates this intersubjectively by drawing the audience into the consequences of the interruption of the performance contract. They have paid to share time with and be entertained by the artist and this is threatened by introducing the (possibly) sleeping child into the theatre frame. Baraitser asks how relentless interruption can be ‘not just depleting but generative.’ (ibid 69). Shhh explores this through conceptual performance where the interruption (and constant threat of it) that reshapes maternal subjectivity form the temporal (post)dramaturgy of the work and manifest comic tension through its liveness. PIPA’s research into systemic exclusion of people with caring responsibilities from work and/or opportunities for employment articulates the barriers faced by UK parents in the performing arts and makes institutional recommendations for best practice including a creche for some ‘interviews, auditions and networking events’. (Cornford 2017: 5) The live performance Shhh advocates for such provisions and more by unapologetically merging the stage with the creche. The artist-researcher brings her baby to the theatre, attempts to put them to sleep just before curtain, rolls them on stage and crosses her fingers they stay asleep. The audience is then trained to put them back to sleep should they awaken. An autodestructive comedy game ensues; the performer makes them laugh, but this risks derailing the performance by waking the child. The pedagogical output of the research investigates how the methods discovered in the performance praxis can be rolled out to ‘bring your own baby’ live art workshops for new parents themed around interruption & unruliness, manifesting inclusive, adult-centred spaces for carers of young children who are at risk of loneliness, isolation, postnatal depression, and the stagnation of their creative practice. The projects aspires toward influencing a policy pathway toward social cohesion and inclusivity, not just in theatre and performance spaces but society at large.

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